CES 2012: Roccat Gaming

Roccat Gaming (pronounced like "rocket"), the new kids on the block in North America dealing with PC peripherals, has announced their presence at CES 2012 with their line of products that will complete any gaming rig. We had the opportunity to sit down with the crew from the Hamburg, Germany-based company to go over their first line or products that will be available in early 2012. Our focus was on the trifecta of peripherals that completes any gamer's necessary collection: the Kone Plus gaming mouse, Isku Keyboard, and Kave 5.1 headset.

Starting with the Kone Plus mouse, it first needs to be noted that this mouse boasts a 6000 DPI laser sensor, more than enough to satisfy your needs, whether you are an FPS junkie or hitting the MMO games. The mouse comes with customizable profiles that can be identified by changeable LED lights on the system itself. A key component for Roccat was that they believed most mice should be customizable in their look and not just set in one color. Linking it up with varying gaming profiles makes a huge difference, so you can have a particular setting for an FPS, another for an RTS, and so on. On top of this, if you aren't happy with a setting, such as the DPI, you can change it on the fly. By pressing the adjusting button on the side of the mouse, the system will actually speak to you what your current DPI setting is and allow you to change it to a more sensitive or less sensitive setting, a truly innovative addition to a mouse.

After spending some time with the Kone Plus, we moved onto the meat of the peripherals, the Isku keyboard. This keyboard is not for the faint of heart as it is quite larger than some gaming keyboards already out on the market. While its size can be a bit overwhelming, what isn't is the customization that is available. While having over 30 available macro keys to use is fantastic, you have to appreciate the little things that this product has, such as the three small macros that are built into the wrist rest at the bottom that are in perfect placement to be used by your left thumb. Building on the little things, the backlight is fixed to a blue backlight to make it easy to read the keys.

The final product that we covered was the Kave 5.1 True Surround Headset. We have to put the emphasis on the word "true" as most 5.1 headsets utilize SRS and not a system that fully immerses you in surround sound. With three drivers in each earpiece, this headset makes sure there is nothing fake about the sound you are hearing. While having a bit of size to it may deter some gamers away from the headset, rest assured that its comfort is top notch to go along with the solid noise canceling that is in the earpieces themselves. The microphone itself has a blue LED light that comes to life when you have muted your microphone, making sure you are well aware that no one can hear you if you have activated it.

All in all, Roccat Gaming is making sure that their first jump into North America is bringing some firepower, and other companies had better take notice.

*An error was made in the original publication of this article regarding the backlight on the Isku Keyboard. We apologize for any misunderstanding with the information that was originally posted